


The Devil by the Highway

by redeem147



Category: Angel: the Series, Bones (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-16
Updated: 2011-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redeem147/pseuds/redeem147
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A body turns up that's beyond even Brennan's experience.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Devil by the Highway

“Right over here, Agent Booth.”

Booth and Brennan followed the young officer through the trees. He pulled away the undergrowth to reveal a partially decayed corpse. “We called the FBI ‘cause being so close to the state line, we thought maybe the body was dumped from a car. There’s drag marks from the side of the highway.”

“How did you find it?” Booth asked.

“Guy called it in. He’d pulled over to the side of the highway to, um, well, nature called...”

“He needed to urinate,” Brennan said.

Booth stifled a smile.

“Um, yes ma’am,” the young man blushed.

Brennan knelt by the body. “Is this a joke?”

“What? Um, no ma’am.”

“Bones, what do you mean?” Booth glanced at the body. “Oh.”

“This body isn’t human. Look at it.”

“No?” the officer asked. “But it looked like...”

“Well, for one thing,” Brennan pointed to the skull, “Human beings don’t have horns.”

******

“But look at the skull,” Angela maintained. “That looks like a human skull.”

“With horns.”

“Okay, I don’t understand it, but I’ll try to reconstruct it.”

Cam prodded the skin on the chest. “I thought the flesh was discoloured from decay, but I’d swear this skin is green.”

“What?” Hodgins asked. “Mould, you mean? Let me get a closer look.”

“No.” Cam continued to block his access by standing in his way. “Like pigmentation.”  
“You’re saying he’s a green dude.” Jack tried to duck under her arm, but she blocked it with her elbow.

“I’m saying he’s a green... thing. We don’t know that he’s a ‘dude’.”

“I’m not even sure that he’s a he.” Brennan walked around the table, indicating the creature’s torso. “Look at the pelvic structure. Too narrow to be female, but not heavy enough to be a male.”

Angela shook her head. “What is this?”

“Maybe it’s an alien,” Zack said.

“Right.” Booth crossed his arms. “Only, instead of a little green man, it’s a big green, ah, whatever.”

“I hope you’re being sarcastic,” Brennan said. “The likelihood of there actually being alien life forms in this galaxy is astronomical.”

“I was being sarcastic. Bones, what can you tell about this thing? I need to know. If it’s human, and a crime’s been committed, we need to know. If it isn’t, I have other things to do.”

Brennan lifted the creature’s hand from the table and examined it. “This looks like a human hand. Every phalanx is in proper proportion to a human male of the approximate height of six feet three, which this body is. But look at the fingernails.”

“If I have to.” Booth looked, but he wouldn’t touch.

“These nails are more like horn than fingernail. See how thick they are.”

“Like the horns on the skull?” he asked.

“Exactly.”

“It was wearing clothes, though.” Angela said. “A really garish, tasteless suit, but a people suit.”

“Well,” Cam excised a bit of tissue from the forearm. “We’ll run DNA tests. At least we’ll know if it’s human.”

“It could be the result of genetic alteration,” Hodgins mused. “Chemical testing, radiation exposure...”

“Who would do something like that?” Zack asked.

“The government. Who else?”

Everyone in the room nodded, but nobody answered.

“Don’t tell me you all agree with me?”

“No, honey.” Angela patted him on the shoulder. “We just expect it of you. Conspiracy paranoia?” She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Not attractive.”

“No?” he asked, smiling.

“Hm, maybe a little. In a really geeky way.”

“People,” Cam said. “Can we concentrate on the job at hand?”

“That’s something else.” Brennan examined the wrist of the creature.

“What is?” Cam asked.

“Hands. This creature, whatever it was, has been bound. And here,” she showed them the ankles. “Here as well.”

“Dr. Brennan.” Zach bent over the chest of the creature. “These marks we assumed were teeth marks on the rib cage, from the body’s exposure. They’re too even. I think it’s been cut with a knife. Probably while it was alive.”

“So,” Booth summed up. “This thing, which may be human, was bound, possibly in the trunk of a car?”

“Right,” Brennan replied. “And probably tortured.”

*****

The next two days brought only more confusion. The torso seemed human. As did the skull, except for the horns. Except for the strange configuration between the base of the skull and the C1. She had no idea what it was for. The spine was otherwise normal. Hodgins had asked if there was a tail, and she’d actually looked.

The phone must have rung when she was in the lab, because the message was only ten minutes old.

“Hello,” the deep, British voice said. “I’ve been looking for a friend, and I saw the article about the body you have in the papers.” Right. The one that had run in the Tattler. Angela had shown it to her. They’d taken the aliens from Mars angle. “Well, much as I hate to think it, you may have him there.” Either they’d found a break, or another nutcase. Experience had led her to expect the latter. “I was wondering if I might meet you. I’m staying at a motel here in town. This is the number.”

She called him back. He seemed sane enough on the phone. She arranged to meet him at a bar downtown.

Of course, when Booth heard about it, he insisted on coming along.

*****

“Charming.” Booth looked up at the sign. “The Pig and Whistle.”

“Yes, this is where he said to meet him.” She pushed open the door to the dimly lit bar. “Does this place smell right to you?”

“This is a dive. So, what did this guy said he looked like?” Booth asked, squinting to adjust his eyes from the bright day outside.

“He said blond, dressed in black, impossibly handsome and manly.”

“Right.”

“I know. That’s what I said.” She nudged Booth. “That guy at the pool table. He’s blond.”

“Blond. His hair practically glows in the dark.” He followed Brennan at a discreet distance, his hand poised for his weapon.

“Excuse me,” Brennan said to the stranger.

“Hey. About to take a shot here.”

“I’m supposed to meet someone here. Are you Spike?”

“Could be.” He pulled back the cue, lining up the shot. “You Dr. Brennan?”

“Yes. You said you’re looking for a friend.”

He knocked two balls into the right pocket. “All right.” He turned to look at her. “You’re a bit of a cutie, for a science type. Then again, that shouldn’t surprise me. I knew this girl, brain the size of ...”

“Is this your friend?” Brennan pulled a photo out of her jacket pocket. “This is a digital reconstruction of the skeletal remains.”

“Yeah.” He dropped the cue on the table. “That’s Lorne.”

“Booth, come here please?” she called. “You don’t need to skulk.”

He came closer. “I wasn’t skulking. I was letting you talk to your contact.”

The contact in question let out a loud, “What are you doing here?” and punched Booth hard on the upper arm. “I told you I could handle this myself.”

“What?” Booth rubbed at the quickly rising bruise.

“Sorry. You were right. It was old Kermit. Bad luck.”

“Huh?”

“But you,” Spike poked the agent in the chest, “said that you had to make things right with Nina, and to let me know if I found anything. If we’re going to work together, it’s bloody time you began to trust me.”

“Who’s Nina?” Brennan asked.

Booth looked stunned. “Hell if I know.”

“Ah, I get it. You’ve ditched the littlest werewolf for Dr. Chippy here.”

“Bones, I don’t know this guy.” Booth stared at him. “But he’s starting to really get on my nerves.”

“Wait a minute.” Spike placed a hand on Booth’s chest. “When did you grow a heartbeat?”

“That’s enough, buddy.” Booth grabbed Spike’s wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. “Lay off.”

“Booth, I think he thinks you’re someone else.”

“Who’s Booth?” Spike pulled himself out of Booth’s grasp. “You’re Angel.”

“Mr. Spike,” Brennan said. “Booth is a good man, but I can assure you he’s no angel.”

“No mister. Just Spike.” He scrutinized the angry FBI agent closely. “Hm. Better body. Better hair. But still...”

Booth reached into his jacket.

“Don’t shoot him,” Brennan said. “He said you had a nice body.”

“I’m getting this.” He held his ID in front of Spike’s face. “Seeley Booth. FBI. The last person to call me angel was my mother, and I was five.”

“Mate, the resemblance is extraordinary. Tell me something. You have family from Ireland?”

“My grandmother.” He put his identification back into his pocket.

Spike grinned. “That randy dog. Wait ‘til I get back to LA.”

*****

They sat in a booth at the back of the bar. “We hadn’t seen him for near on a year. One day he calls up Angel, says he’s lonely, says he misses his old friend. I’d always thought he’d had a thing for ol’ Broody. Anyway, Angel arranges to meet him, but he’s not there. Figured he’s changed his mind. Until we see that bit in the tabloids.”

“So he sent you to check it out?” Booth asked.

“Yeah, well, wasn’t the most reputable source. And Angel has some girl trouble he wants to sort out, so he sends me.”

“What was he?”

“Bones.”

“He seems to be human, in some ways, but in others, almost like some sort of animal.”

“Bones!”

She ignored her partner. “He seems to have some reptilian traits, and I’m sure you noticed the horny protuberances.”

“He said he was from Pylea, wherever that is. All I know is, he was a good man, and he got a bad break. As to anything else, well, you’re the science bird. You figure it out.” Spike swirled the beer in his mug. “You said he was tortured?”

“Incised, at different times. If he was taken in LA, then driven to Maryland, he could have died at any point in the trip.”

“Probably not far from where he was found,” Booth added. “Otherwise they would have dumped the body sooner. They likely opened the trunk, realized he was gone, and left him in the woods near the highway.”

“Well,” said Spike, “there’s only one thing left to do.”

“That is?” Booth asked.

“Find the bastard that killed him.”

*****

“So, what do you think of this Spike character?” Booth asked later in the car. “Because I think he knows more about his late friend than he lets on.”

“I think you’re right. Should we tail him?”

“Tail him? Well, I think we should keep an eye on him. Which won’t be hard for you.”

“What are you talking about?” Brennan asked.

“Well, you said he was impossibly handsome.”

“I did not. I said he said he was impossibly handsome.”

“You were checking him out.”

“I was not.”

“He was checking you out.”

Brennan cocked her head. “Really?”

Booth’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “See.”

“Don’t be silly. Just drive the car.”

*****

Spike slipped the key into the motel room door, when he sensed someone behind him.

“When I saw that story, I knew one of you would come. No,” she said, “Don’t turn around.”

“Hello, Eve.” He kept his voice even. “I suppose you have a stake in your hand.”

“Of course. Don’t move or I’ll use it.”

“And if I move, I suppose you’ll use it anyway. It’s hard, you know, through leather, not to mention a backbone.”

“You won’t risk it. You’re a coward. You’re all cowards. He told me everything. It didn’t take much. Angel told Lorne to kill Lindsey.”

“So you tortured that little piece of info out of Lorne, then. Yes, I suppose it wouldn’t take much. But that was them. Why me?” His body tensed, ready to swing around and take the stake from her hand.

“You could have stopped them.”

“I suppose. Had I wanted to. But I had better things to do.”

She lunged at him then. He spun around, ready to strike, when a voice cried out, “Stop!”

She spun around at the sound of his voice. Screamed and ran towards him, raising the stake. “You! It was you! I’ll kill you!”

Booth reached for his weapon, but before he could pull it out, Spike was on the crazed woman, pulling her off the agent with a roar.

She fell to the ground, stake dropping from her hand. Booth and Brennan both stood over her, weapons poised.

“Put that away, Bones.”

“Why did she attack you?”

The woman lay sobbing on the ground.

“Because,” Spike said, “She thought you were Angel.”

*****

“It’s so strange. It looked like your skull structure changed.”

They sat in the diner, Booth, Brennan and Spike at one table. Angela, Hodgins at Zack at the next, though Jack’s frustration at knowing Zack wanted a ride home was obvious. Still, it was fun, playing footsies with Angela while Zack blathered on oblivious.

“Trick o’ the light,” Spike replied. “So, what will happen to Eve?”

“We can’t even establish that your friend is human, so I don’t know about a murder charge.” Brennan replied. “But she attacked an FBI agent, so I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere soon.”

“Well,” Spike said, downing his beer, “I’d best be off. Long drive back to LA.” He reached into his pocket for some cash.

“Don’t worry about that.” Booth said. “Occasionally I like to pay the bill for people who help save my life.”

“Good,” Brennan said. “I’ll order dessert then.”

“Ah, so this is why the lab is empty.” Cam walked over to Booth’s table. “Spike? Is that you?”

“Cam, pet.” Spike gave her a hug. “Great to see you again. Sorry, but I have to run. I’ll give you a call.”

They watched him head out the door, then Cam sat in the now vacant chair. “I guess he wants to be well on his way before dawn.”

“How do you know him?” Booth asked. “And why dawn?”

“Come on,” Cam said. “You didn’t know? Spike’s a vampire.”


End file.
